The Pegasus Five
by Lee Davies
Summary: AU fic with multiple relationships. Sorry, no slash!
1. Chapter 1

_I revised this, so this is the new first chapter. Hope you enjoy!

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18 year old Rodney McKay looked out the window as his dad drove around the circle lined with trees that eventually stopped to reveal the Boston Conservatory of Music. The majestic building took his breath away and he hoped that he would do well here. He'd been playing piano since he was a very young child and had shown great promise as a concert pianist.

Climbing out as soon as the car came to a complete stop, Rodney couldn't stop a goofy smile from spreading over his face. He had done it; he was finally here! His dad had an amused smile as he removed his eldest child's things from the trunk and set them on the curb. "Where do you need to check in?" he asked. Snapping out of his happy haze, Rodney took out a piece of paper from his pocket and consulted it.

"I just need to check in at the front desk...they'll tell me where my room is."

Mounting the steps, he felt a slight sense of intimidation creep in. Shaking it off as best he could, he walked over to the line at the front desk and waited his turn. "Name?" the young woman asked pleasantly.

"Rodney McKay." he said.

She consulted her list before finding him. "Here we go! You're up on the 4th floor in room 405. Your roommate is named Radek Zelenka and he's from the Czech Republic. He's checked in already." she told him. Rooting around in her desk, she found his room key and handed it to him. "Go down the hallway to the right and take the elevator up to the 4th floor. Hope you have a nice day, Rodney."

Wishing her the same, Rodney went over to his father and they began moving his things down to the elevator. The doors were about to shut when someone's hand darted out and the doors opened.

"Thanks..." Rodney gasped as he and his father lugged some of his things in.

A boy about Rodney's age grinned at him and replied cheerfully, "Don't mention it. I'm John Sheppard."

"Rodney McKay." he replied, reaching out and shaking the hand offered to him.

"What floor?" an older man who was obviously John's father asked.

"4th, please."

John's grin widened. "I'm on 4th too! Which room?"

"405." Rodney told him.

"I'm in 404! Nice to meet you, neighbor!" Sheppard chuckled.

"Do you know who your roommate is?" Rodney asked curiously.

"I know his name is Carson Beckett and he's from Scotland, but that's about it!" John said with a shrug.

"Mine is Radek Zelenka from the Czech Republic."

"Guess we both got the "exotic" roommmates." John said with a smirk.

Rodney had to laugh and Mr. McKay looked replieved that his son already had a new friend. The elevator stopped and both boys got their things down to their rooms. Tapping on the door lightly, Rodney poked his head around and asked hesitantly, "Radek?"

There was a flurry of movement from the window and then the door was flung open to reveal a boy with long, floppy brown hair and silver glasses beaming at him. "You are Rodney, yes?" he asked in his musically accented voice.

Rodney smiled nervously. "Yes, that's me."

Radek nodded. "I thought so. Is good to meet you, Rodney." he said, giving Rodney an enthusiastic handshake that had the other boy's fears evaporating.

Mr. McKay came in with some of Rodney's things and Radek helped them both put everything away.

"Have you met anyone else?" Radek queried as they popped the screens into the windows so they could get some air circulating in the room.

"Actually, I rode up in the elevator with our neighbor in 404, John Sheppard. He's really nice." Rodney informed him.

"I met the boy in single room next to us on other side, room 406. Is named Ronon Dex and he is from Hawaii." Radek supplied. "He will be over to meet you later."

Once all of Rodney's things were in the room, Radek tactfully went to get a drink so they could say goodbye and came back in when his father went off down the hallway. "You okay?" Radek asked gently. "Yeah, I'll be fine." he replied, giving his new roommate a weak smile. The two went inside their room and were in the process of putting up their various pictures of hot girls (Mariska Hargitay for Rodney and some Czech actress for Radek) and their favorite bands like Jet, Sum 41, Yellowcard, Green Day and some European bands that Radek liked when there came a knock at the door.

"Rodney?" John called.

"Yeah John, come on in." Rodney called back.

John came bounding in a couple seconds later along with another dark haired boy who was introduced to him and Radek as his roommate, Carson Beckett. The four boys were having a pleasant conversation when another knock came and Ronon Dex soon entered as well. The five boys talked until it was time to go down to dinner. They found a table together and were eating when some girls came over to them.

"Are these seats taken?" a red head asked.

Radek's jaw was almost on the floor and Rodney elbowed him as he replied, "Nope! Feel free to sit down!"

The red head's name was Elizabeth and the boys exchanged amused glances at how smitten Radek was with her already. Her companions were named Laura, Teyla (who was Ronon's cousin), and Kate. The 10 of them began talking amongst themselves in an effort to get to know each other better.

"So Rodney, what do you want to major in?" Elizabeth asked.

He swallowed a mouthful of his spaghetti before replying, "I'm going for a Music Education degree...I'd kinda like to be a band teacher. What about you?"

"I'm going for one in music business...my dream is to someday have my own record label." she said.

"Wow! That's a really cool goal...I hope you get there!"

John was there to get his degree in Music Ed. like Rodney while Carson and Teyla were both going to try for a Vocal Performance degree. Ronon and Kate wanted a Percussion Performance degree while Radek was the lone Violin Performance major. Laura, like Elizabeth, was there to get her Music Business degree.

"I just hope I can keep up with Music Theory." Carson groaned.

"Why wouldn't you be able to keep up?" Rodney asked, slightly puzzled.

"I just learned to read music very recently and I only know 2 clefs. I saw in the book that there are two more I'm going to have to learn! Bloody insanity" the Scot replied, sounding more than slightly panicked.

Radek smiled reassuringly. "Do not worry. I am good at Music Theory and I will help you."

Elizabeth took a bite of bread before saying to Radek, "I'm hopeless at Music Theory as well. Do you think you could help me too?"

He nodded shyly. "I would be happy to help."

"I bet you would..." Rodney muttered. This earned him an elbow on the side from his slightly flustered roommate and a couple of snorts from Carson and Ronon. Elizabeth chose to ignore this comment, much to Radek's relief.

They took their trays up to the window to deposit them for the kitchen to clean them and talked about where they all were living. The boys discovered that the girls were a floor below them which excited Radek no end. As they strolled out into the ballroom, they noticed a piano. Rodney hurried over to it and played a few quick scales on it. "Lovely piano..." he sighed.

"Play something real." Laura challenged.

Rodney gave her a playful glare which made her giggle and Rodney found himself thinking she was kinda cute. Turning back to the instrument in front of him, Rodney allowed his mind to clear and he began to gently play the Adagio movement of Beethovan's "Pathetique" Sonata. As he played, he closed his eyes and just concentrated on letting the notes sing out through his fingers.

As he softly rolled the final chord and opened his eyes, he was aware of more than 9 pairs of eyes on him. Everyone who had stopped to listen applauded and he flushed deep red before bowing low to them.

"You play REALLY well, Rodney." Laura told him, still somewhat stunned at what she'd heard.

From a few feet away, the distinct sounds of a violin made them turn. Radek was tuning it for someone and was about to hand it back when the owner begged him to play something on it. Looking over and seeing Elizabeth's waiting face, the Czech momentarily cast his modesty to the wind. He took off his glasses and took the bow into his hands. The violin started sweet and low, then exploded in a frenzy of music. Rodney's eyebrows almost went all the way up to hairline. His roommate was AMAZING! The violin seemed to come alive in Radek's hands and there was something almost not even humanly possible about how quickly his fingers were moving. Winding down to its close, the violin sang it's last note and only then did the boy's eyes open. A flush spread quickly over his cheeks and he ducked his head in embarrassment.

Rodney and John both took special delight in noticing how Elizabeth's eyes never wandered from the Czech's face and she was the first to tell him how well he'd played. Since Carson and Teyla were the vocalists of the group, they conferred for a few minutes, before singing an impromptu acapella duet together that had the others shaking their heads in wonderment. Laura told them she played the flute, as did Elizabeth. John's main instrument was trumpet, but he played some other things on the side.

The group sat in the lounge on the ground level and talked about this and that. Everyone was impressed to learn that both Teyla and Ronon were accomplished surfers but the two of them shrugged it off.

"If you grow up in Hawaii, you HAVE to surf." Teyla laughed. "Especially with our grandpa-he insisted that both of us learn."

As Teyla described catching a wave, the other listened intently.

"We'll have to try that sometime!" John said eagerly.

"Maybe over Spring Break we can take a trip down to Florida." Ronon suggested. "I know some pretty good beaches that we could start you guys at."

Before too long, it was getting quite late so the boys and girls seperated to go to bed. Elizabeth gave Radek a smile that was meant for him and him alone while the others smirked and shook their heads. It looked like the first romance of the year was officially off and running!

* * *

The next morning, everyone woke up and went to the campus bookstore to get their books for their classes.

"Man, this music theory book alone is almost 200 dollars!" John yelped.

"I know...I'm going to be paying for these books until doomsday!" Rodney replied, shaking his head.

"Bloody robber barrons!" Carson grumbled as he joined them in the long line.

Radek walked up next, one lone book in hand.

"Where are the rest of your books?" Rodney asked, puzzled.

A sly smile crept over the Czech's face. "As soon as I knew schedule, I e-mailed professors and asked what books were needed. Bought them for MUCH less on Amazon." he replied.

The other boys looked down at the books in their hands, then at Radek.

"How long do they take to ship?" Rodney asked.

"Not long." Radek answered.

They all nodded, then wrote down the books they needed and headed off to room 405 so they could use Rodney's new laptop. True to Radek's word, the website had the books for a LOT less than the campus bookstore was asking for.

"Radek, you are a genius!" John cried. "I'm gonna save HUNDREDS getting my books off Amazon!"

Radek grinned. "At lease SOMEONE knows I am smart." he said with great satisfaction.

John, Carson, and Ronon howled with laughter as Rodney wacked Radek in the head with a pillow, resulting in a small scale pillow fight.

Once they were all out of breath, they used Rodney's new lap top to take turns ordering their books. While he was waiting for the machine to load the shopping cart page, John took the opportunity to snoop around in the owner's music folder.

"You like Sum 41?" he asked, in mild shock.

The others looked at Rodney, who redened.

"Yeah...I'm actually from Canada." he confessed. "My parents divorced when I was really young and I came to this school because it's close to my dad...my mom and I don't get along very well."

"Wow...a Canuck, eh?" Carson teased.

Rodney gave him a mock glare. "You'd better behave yourself or you can go use your OWN computer to order your books!"

The young man laughed. "My computer is slow...it's so full of music it's going to take me years to burn everything onto cds!"

"Join the club." Radek told them. "I have over 2,000 mp3 files on my lap top."

As John finished up and Ronon began ordering his stuff, the other boys gathered around Radek's lap top and began looking through his music files.

"Man Rad, you've got practically EVERYTHING!" John whistled.

The Czech raised an eyebrow. "Rad?" he queried.

John grinned at him. "I give all of my friends special nicknames. I will call you Rad."

"Okay...that I can live with." Radek shrugged.

Rodney's eyes narrowed as John turned and began sizing him up with a distinctly evil smile on his face. "Oh no you don't...you are NOT going to give me some embarrassing nickname!" he growled.

"So I can't call you Roddy?" he snickered.

"Hell to the n-o!"

They all laughed at this.

"What's your middle name?" John asked.

"What's yours?" Rodney shot back.

"Alexander. Now fair is fair!"

Rodney sighed. "It's Dan and before you ask, no it's not short for Daniel. It's just Rodney Dan McKay."

John considered this for a moment. "Okay then...I'm calling you Dan."

"Why?" Rodney asked, a little more than puzzled.

"Well, your name doesn't shorten nicely like Radek's does. If I can't think of a good nickname, I just call someone by their middle name." John explained.

Shaking his head, Rodney said, "Whatever floats your boat, Shep!"

"Hmmm...Shep...I like it!"

Rodney did a face palm while Carson, Radek, and Ronon all chuckled to themselves. John looked at Carson for a long moment.

"I can't decide what to call you, either..." he told the Scot.

"Well, I had a friend who used to call me Cab...it's my initials, Carson Alan Beckett." he said. "Plus, I used to sing a few Cab Calloway songs with a little jazz band in Glasgow on the weekends."

John liked this, so Carson was now known as Cab and Ronon preferred to just be called Dex.

They were lounging in Radek and Rodney's room listening to a Scottish band Carson liked called The Delgados when the girls dropped in. Chairs were swiftly surrended to the visitors and the volume on the music was turned down a little.

"The Delgados?" Teyla asked.

Carson grinned at her and nodded.

Rodney hid a smile and walked over to his lap top. "Any Queen fans in here?" he asked the room at large.

"YES!" they all yelled.

"Good." he smiled. Clicking a few times and plugging his speakers in, Rodney stepped back as the distinctive strains of "Bohemian Rhapsody" began.

"Wayne's World! Party Time! Excellent!" Radek said with a VERY odd Czech/surfer dude accent that had everyone cracking up.

"No way!" Kate replied.

"Yes way!" Rodney said.

"We're not worthy!" John cried.

"We know!" Carson replied snarkily.

Everyone else laughed as John pretended to pout. Nobody was buying it though and soon all of them were singing along and bobbing their heads to the classic song. Rodney looked over and caught a smiling Radek's eye. The Czech nodded warmly at him and as the next song came on and they began to sing along with it again, he thought that this college thing wasn't going to be so bad after all...


	2. Chapter 2

_Sorry for not updating this sooner, but I had another story that I wanted to finish before exploring this one any further. Please read and review!_

Once everyone had settled into their routines, college wasn't so bad. Radek was the appointed Music Theory tutor so everyone met after classes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to go over that day's lesson and do the homework together with Radek checking it to verify its accuracy.

Saturday came and Rodney, Radek, and Carson decided to go job hunting. They'd noticed that the Hardee's down the street was hiring. John and Ronon loudly protested working fast food and declined to go with them. However, as Carson wisely pointed out, a job was a job, and who really cared where it was?

The manager was very happy to see them and asked them if they had ever worked fast food before. Rodney had done two years in a Toronto McDonalds, Carson had worked in a diner as a busboy in Scotland, and Radek had cooked for a restaurant in Prague. After making sure their student visas were in order, the manager immediately offered them jobs and asked when they could start.

Rodney looked at his friends, and they nodded. They all had the same thought.

"Well, since we're wearing jeans and all we'd have to do is put the t-shirts on, how about we start today?"

Clayton (the manager) looked like he wanted to kiss them. Once they got the official t-shirts shrugged on and the black caps on their heads, Clayton took them around the store, showing them where everything was. Radek was immediately at home in the kitchen, making Rodney and Carson laugh.

While Clayton stayed back in the kitchen to help Radek learn the different burgers, Rodney took drive through and Carson was on the first cash register with one of the girls, named Christine, helping him learn the buttons.

A group of high school girls came in to get something to eat and were immediately captivated by Carson and his accent, giggling as they ordered. He flirted outrageously with them and promised to bring their food out to them himself. Rodney rolled his eyes and flicked an old French fry at him while Carson merely smirked.

Drive through picked up some steam though, and Carson was taken aback to see that Rodney actually possessed some charisma of his own, sweet-talking some old ladies and generally being a charming person.

Just then, a loud outbreak of Czech came from the kitchen and Rodney had to try not to start cracking up on the headset. Radek was obviously pissed off about something and since Rodney had tried to learn from Czech from his roommate, he knew that Radek had just cursed something out.

"I take it whatever happened wasna good…" Carson whispered.

"REALLY not good." Rodney whispered back.

The evening was relatively uneventful and when the boys left, they received a schedule for the next few days.

Returning back to their dorm rooms, Rodney and Radek said goodbye to Carson at his door. Entering their own living space, both of them flopped down on their beds.

"I'm tired." Rodney moaned.

"At least you did not burn finger in fryer!" Radek replied grumpily.

Rolling over, Rodney looked at his roommate in concern. "Ouch! That's gotta hurt." He said sympathetically.

Radek held out his right hand and the Canadian winced. His roomie's finger was an angry red color and there were blisters already beginning to form.

"You should probably get some ice on that." Rodney suggested, flipping his Aural Skills book open and looking over the next chapter.

Radek nodded and headed off downstairs to the basement where the ice machine was kept. Returning a few minutes later, the Czech dumped some ice in a glass along with some water and stuck his finger in there.

"Ahhh…much better." he said.

The girls came in just then. "Hey guys, where have you been all day? John and Ronon said something about getting jobs." Elizabeth announced, sitting in Radek's computer chair.

"We were working." Rodney said smugly. "We got offered the jobs on the spot."

"Where will you be working?" Teyla asked curiously.

"At Hardee's down the road. John and Ronon think that fast food beneath them, but we agreed with Carson that job is job." Radek answered, lifting his finger out of the glass to check it. Elizabeth's eyes widened.

"What happened?" she asked, aghast.

"I accidentally dunked finger in fryer."

Everyone winced. "I hope that it gets better soon." Kate offered in her quiet voice. Radek thanked her nicely and she turned slightly red.

"Are you doing anything tomorrow?" Laura asked impatiently, bouncing from foot to foot.

Rodney consulted his schedule and shook his head. "We don't work again until Monday…why?"

The girls shared an evil grin. "We're thinking of hitting the Dollar Store."

The two foreigners looked puzzled. "What's so special about this Dollar Store?" Radek queried.

"It's the Holy Grail of college. Bargains on EVERYTHING and you can find the wackiest stuff…my sister did all of her Christmas shopping there." Laura explained.

Rodney shrugged. "Okay then…tomorrow, the Dollar Store!"


	3. Chapter 3

Sunday morning, everyone got up and met in the common room on the girls' floor. John was quite gleeful, telling Ronon about all of the oddball things one could find in this store. Rodney was more interested in the cheap food, however, as was Radek.

They got down all 3 flights of stairs before coming out of Main Hall and heading down the street.

"How far away is this place?" Rodney asked.

"2 blocks, Rodney…I think you'll live." Elizabeth teased.

"If not, can I have laptop?" Radek asked hopefully.

The group laughed as Rodney began to chase his roommate up the street with Radek saying in a high pitched voice, "Ohhh, somebody save me! Big Bad Rodney is after me!"

Once everyone had caught up to them (and Rodney had given Radek a BIG noogie), they went into the store itself.

Rodney's eyes lit up at the 4 aisles of food, while John and Ronon immediately went off to the toy section to see if there were any good things to use for pranks. The girls headed over to the underwear section and Carson went to see if he could get some cheap razors, since his were pretty dull.

Once they'd stocked up on the "necessary" items, Teyla dragged them all over to the clearance bins. "This is where you will find your weird, yet wonderful treasures." she told them with a smile.

As he dug through some of the various objects, Rodney was childishly pleased to find a keychain Rubix Cube. "Mine!" he sang, holding the precious object aloft.

A few seconds later, Radek triumphantly held up one of his own. "Now I have fun in Conducting class!" he said, sounding pleased.

Carson found a bottle of cheap hair gel and had to search for another one for John. Ronon was satisfied with a waterproof watch he'd discovered and the girls were happy with some lipstick and nail polish.

Enthusiastically hitting the last bin. Rodney fought Radek for the t-shirt which said, "Music Major" and lost, but while he was sulking, Kate helpfully found him one that said, "I'm a Musician…I can Handel anything!"

Carson had found a VERY bright tartan scarf while John and Ronon were more partial to the do-rags. Radek also found a fawn colored fedora that, when placed on his head, made Elizabeth suddenly lose her powers of speech. Teyla found a shirt for herself and Laura found a book she'd wanted to read.

Kate looked on in silence until Rodney thrust his hand into the bin and came up with a pen. Not just any pen, but an electric blue feathered pen. "For you." He said, handing it to her with a flourish.

She accepted it shyly, and vowed she would always have it with her. More feathered pens were found and everyone in the group had one.

Declaring themselves almost bankrupt from the expedition, they checked out and lugged everything back to the school. Rodney had about 6 bags so Kate carried a couple of them for him since she'd gotten very little.

Upon returning to their rooms, Radek reached into his bag and pulled out a small box of brightly colored capsules. "Put in water, and turn into different animals." he explained as he took a cup, filled it with some water, and placed a blue capsule in.

An hour later, he had a small foam cow. Fascinated, Rodney went next, sticking a yellow one in and getting a duck. John and Ronon both got green geese with Carson receiving a cow as well.

The boys kept sticking the capsules into the water and getting more of the little foam animals, which amused them no end. John's goose started "talking" to Radek's cow which resulted in all of them goofing around with the little toys. The girls came to get them for dinner and merely stood there in the doorway, enjoying the show that was going on before them.

"Is this some kind of male bonding ritual or are we allowed to play too?" Elizabeth teased.

They jumped to their feet, embarrassed, but Teyla took a goose from Ronon and started "talking" to Carson's cow. The others horked some animals and soon the room was filled with laughter.


End file.
